Gas springs are well known and have been used in dies of presses for sheet metal stamping operations. For example, gas springs can be used as press cushions, among many other types of applications. A conventional gas spring may include a casing, a piston rod carried in the casing, a bearing and seal housing held in the casing by a retainer to guide and retain the piston rod within the casing, and a pressure chamber to hold pressurized gas, typically nitrogen at an operating pressure of, for example, 1,500 to 3,000 PSI in some applications. The housing includes one or more bearings to guide movement of the piston rod within the casing, and one or more seals to prevent leakage from the pressure chamber. The pressurized gas biases the piston rod to an extended position, and yieldably resists movement of the piston rod from the extended position to a retracted position. But in use, the piston rod may overtravel beyond a design intended retracted position, and such overtravel may result in undesirable overpressure, damage to the gas spring and/or and other adverse conditions. The rapid return from an overtravel position of a piston rod may also damage the forming equipment and/or workpiece with which the gas spring is used. In an overtravel position of the piston rod the gas pressure in the chamber may be 50% to 75% higher than its pressure in the normally fully extended position of the piston rod.